Name: Peach Pudding
Ingredients: 2 cups peaches, cooked and sweetened; 1 pint sweet milk; 4 eggs; 1 cup sugar; 1 tablespoon butter; ¼ teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 2 cups flour

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Peach Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

Fill a pudding dish with the cooked and sweetened peaches.
In a bowl, mix the sweet milk, eggs, sugar, butter, salt, baking powder, and flour until smooth.
Pour the batter over the peaches in the dish.

Bake and serve

Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden brown.
Serve with cream.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Peach + milktop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together781 recipes

Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Peach + buttertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together860 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure as the pudding sets.
Flour: Provides the body that holds the pudding together once baked.
Baking powder: Releases gas in the batter so the pudding rises and becomes lighter.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the top brown in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat for richer flavour and a tender crumb.
Peaches: Supply fruit flavour and moisture that soaks into the batter below the top.